November 18th is a date that will go to the key pages of the history of Mexico in labor matters, the birth of the new model of conflict resolution between employees and employers marks the beginning and end of an era. The gradual change that Mexico will experience as of this Tuesday is profound, federal and state authorities involved in the process coincide.
Starting November 18th, labor disputes will be resolved with a model that bets on conciliation and a prompt and expeditious solution in a maximum of 45 days. The claims will go through the Labor Conciliation and Registration Center for mediation and, if they are not resolved in this way, they will reach a Labor Court.
This model will begin to operate gradually in eight states, with federal and local conciliatory and judicial bodies. It will fully operate throughout the country in mid-2022. The first phase includes Campeche, Chiapas, Durango, the State of Mexico, San Luis Potosí, Tabasco, Zacatecas, and partially Hidalgo.
Luisa María Alcalde Luján, Secretary of Labor and Social Security (STPS) warns that the new model of labor justice “is serious” and the change will not be superficial.
“As authorities, we have the obligation to give a clear and unequivocal message: we will enforce and apply the new rules of work coexistence, common rules that we must all comply with. This will not only strengthen the rule of law, but it will also generate greater certainty and stability in each workplace and will attract more investment, certainty in the T-MEC trade agreement and workers’ rights ”, highlights the federal official.
From the perspective of Soledad Aragón, president of the National Conference of Labor Secretaries (Conasetra), the new labor justice “is a paradigm shift.” Authorities, workers, employers, and lawyers now have a great challenge with this new mechanism to work and avoid saturation of the courts.
Esteban Martínez Mejía, head of the Liaison Unit for the Reform of the Labor Justice System of the STPS, qualifies the new model as the end of an era “of corporatism, control and simulation that became entrenched in our laws and institutions for decades”, to move into an era where labor freedom, democracy, and justice are at the center of priorities.
For his part, Alfredo Domínguez Marrufo, first general director of the Federal Center for Labor Conciliation and Registration (Centro Laboral de conciliación y arbitraje), a pillar of the new model, believes that the change is not just about norms or institutions, but about culture. The birth of the new solution system, he adds, implies the end of a litigation industry that bet on long trials.
The great labor reform of 2019 involved for the first time the Federal Institute of Public Defense (IFDP) in the matter of work. In this way, employees who do not resolve their conflict in the conciliation, and do not have the resources to pay for a lawyer, will be able to count on the support of a defender of the Judicial Power, granted by the government.
Netzaí Sandoval Ballesteros, general director of IFPD, highlights that this paradigm shift was urgent for Mexico since labor justice was practically abandoned and captured by coyotes, all to the detriment of the most vulnerable workers.
Source: El Economista
